DELAY IN THE RECLASSIFICATION OF STATE AS A NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85M00363R001102410003-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 21, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 4, 2008
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: March 18, 1983
• Content Type: REPORT

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SUBJECT: Delay in the Reclassification of State as a
National Security Agency
1. Huh Montgomery (14 March), Dennis Kux (17 March)
and (18 March) all assert that OMB continues to 25X1
fig acceptance of the reclassification of the Department of
State as a national security agency. OMB is allegedly denying
the need for the change, on the grounds that State supposedly
already receives from the budgetary process all the resources
it needs. (State--Montgomery and Kux--insists that it does not.)
Therefore, so OMB's argument allegedly runs, the change would
insult OMB Director David Stockman b wrongfully implying he
has not beein doing his job. says he is having difficul25X1
getting Judge Clark to focus on the issue.
2. It would be useful, after obtaining confirmation from
Judge Clark that the above is still an accurate picture of the
state of play, to re-emphasize to him the interest the Agency
shares with State in OMB's early acceptance of the reclassifi-
cation of State.
State Dept. review completed
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Treating State as a National Sec'rit1 Element
1. she Secretary's letter to the ?resider.z addresses a
more general point than that of our FY 19E- bL-figet recuest.
2. OMB has considered State as a dor,iestic agency and has
always treated us as such in making its budget determinations.
OMB's unwillingness to include the Foreign Service among those
"specialized services" automatically exempted -from the new
retirement proposals is but the most recent example of our
problem.
-- When President Reagan took office on January 20,
1981, he immediately froze government hiring, with the
exception of DOD and CIA. State eventually was able
to obtain certain limited exemptions, for health and
security reasons, for example, but did not receive a
blanket exemption.
-- When the above freeze was lifted, the President cut
all agencies, except DOD and CIA. State appealed the
cut, and Secretary Haig personally appealed to the
President, which resulted in about half of the cut
being restored.
-- State was treated similarly by the Carter
Administration - in travel as well as employment
cutbacks. Again, travel freezes were applied to State
as they were to other domestic agencies. DOD and CIA
were treated more favorably. Again, on appeal we
received some relief, but not what we felt we needed.
Insufficient operational travel funds have been a
serious recurring problem for State.
-- The government-wide goal of reducing employment by
75,000 includes the State Department. It does not
include DOD and CIA. (We must acknowledge, however,
that despite this goal, State did receive increases
for FY 1984.)
-- During the FY 1984 budget hearings, the 0MB
examiner specifically indicated that State would have
to share along with other domestic agencies in the
reductions imposed by the President to neet his
economic recovery program goals.
3. We believe the field of foreign affairs, the current
turbulent conditions of service abroad, and the predominant
role of the United States in the world, all support the view
that the Department should be considered a national security
element, and should be given a priority for resources akin to
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that for Defense and CIA. The unpredictability of
international events, the need for the United States to
anticipate or to respond to them in a timely fashion, and the
real dangers and hardships our people are subjected to demand
this exempted treatment.
4. Our employment levels are about what they were in 1964
and our funding levels are approximately the same miniscule
proportion of the federal budget that they were twenty years
ago, while workloads and responsibilities have grown
several-fold. These facts in themselves suggest we are trying
to respond to the demands of a far more complex, dangerous and
challenging international environment on the cheap. The
Administration and the Congress wouldn't stand for this for our
military forces. We believe they should not stand for it
either regarding our diplomatic establishment. As a matter of
fact our authorizing committees are constantly willing to
support more resources for State than OMB allows us to ask
for. We think it is high time to change this anomalous
situation.
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7. We are prepared to continue to work with OMB to effect
improved management techniques (FTE, A-76 contracting
guidelines, workload measurement, financial management,
property management, etc.). We are not by any means looking
for a blank check. We are prepared to justify on merit every
request for increased money and position resources. But we do
not believe we should continue to share in across-the-board
budget cutting applied to domestic agencies. We feel strongly
that State deserves the same exemption rather consistently
given to DOD and CIA in this regard.
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